Exhibition "The Player takes the Chords. Lembit Saarts 100" will be opened in the library

On Thursday, September 19th at 4 p.m, an exhibition titled “The Player Takes the Chords” will open on the 3rd floor of the university library to celebrate the 100th anniversary of artist Lembit Saarts' birth.

Many of the works displayed at this exhibition will be shown to a wider audience for the first time. “The idea for the exhibition comes from Aimar Jugaste and Krista Aru,” said Enn Lillemets, one of the curators of the exhibition. “It is always challenging to select from a large number of works, but I believe that together with Lembit's daughter Tiina, we have curated a representative collection of the artist's best works.”

According to Lillemets, the paintings featured in the exhibition are full of internal movement and dynamic stillness. “The composition relies on the use of color, with a well-tempered blue, the artist's favorite color, often providing precise tuning and spiritual focus,” he described the selected works. In addition to Saarts' paintings, the exhibition includes two portraits from his time at the institute, one by fellow student Valdur Ohakas and another by sculpture instructor Anton Starkopf.

Lembit Saarts was known for his sensitive use of color, and his painting repertoire is broad: he created numerous portraits, figure compositions, landscapes, and also abstract works.

Lembit Saarts was born on September 28, 1924, in Tartumaa. In 1949, he was arrested on charges of participating in an anti-Soviet movement. Saarts was released from a Kazakhstani labor camp in 1956 and, upon returning to his homeland, began working as a drawing teacher and as an artist at an experimental repair plant. Naturally, he continued painting as well. His main teachers were Johannes Võerahansu and Elmar Kits. He was part of the unofficial 1960s group that significantly renewed Estonian art, alongside Valve Janov, Silvia Jõgever, Kaja Kärner, Ülo Sooster, Lüüdia Vallimäe-Mark, and Heldur Viires. In 1988, Saarts helped establish the Tartu Art Society studio (later the Konrad Mägi studio).

The exhibition “The Player Takes the Chords” will be open in the library until November 17th.